The last thread you made may have had more interest in the Micro-controller section, at least for the Leonardo it has worked out to be 8 pages so far.

I wonder if there are enough people that actually need a better processor. On this forum it seems the most common board is 328 powered. The Mega is available but, it costs more and is overkill for a lot of projects. Then, I read about people wanting something smaller yet so they are looking at the Tiny stuff.

For myself, the Due would be interesting for higher speed logging and graphics. However, I could probably do everything that I need to do with the 328 or the Mega. The other issue I see is that it will be difficult to solder an Arm chip to a PCB on a new design. It would take some serious work to make my own board for it using Eagle also.

I do think that once some interesting projects are started using the Due, other people will gain interest and join in.

I've paid very little attention to the Due. I've only been fooling with microcontrollers for a year now, everything I'm working on or thinking about is addressed pretty well by the ATmega328 and the occasional ATtiny, and I'm still learning.

Not to say the Due isn't a great concept, I think it is, and while I'd love to check one out, I probably won't have the bandwidth anytime soon. However, it is a solution aimed at an entirely different set of problems and so perhaps somewhat outside what has (up to now) been the main scope of interest for this forum. I think this is one thing that contributes to the lack of discussion.

Like cyclegadget, one downside for me would be the ability to create boards of my own design. I will be watching to see the types of projects that people create with them, and that may increase my level of interest.

How big is the chip for that? I just did a board for skyjumper with the 100 pin 640/1280 (not sure which he installed) with the 4 serial ports.He was able to install the chip in his reflow oven (toaster oven with sparkfun controller board), and got a bootloader installed on to it! Am waiting to see a picture.mmcp42 modified the soldermask for the part so the guys at Internationl Circuits could apply soldermask between pins (thinned the pads a little to allow 8 mil spacing between pad edges).

We can ask mmcp42 to make up an eagle symbol if one doesn't exist with the same 8mil spacing for solder masking - he modified the last one in like no time!Have to be real careful placing the part so leads don't get bent.

I need to get back to the Discovery board shield I started a while ago too. Not sure what pins to connect to all the parts that were suggested.

This would be the same - what to do with all this capability, hardware and softwre? SD card? Hard drive? Solid State Drive? Display(s)?

Yeah, soldering that in a reflow setting won't be that hard at all. I've hand soldered a LQPF144 before, same specs, 0.5mm pitch, 0.22mm pins. Wasn't all that hard. When I was hand soldering everything, I would always make the corner pads (pins 1, 37, 73, and 109) about 3 times larger and stick out on one side of the pin. That way, I can put a small glob of tin on the pad, and just "scrape" the soldering iron along the whole side of the IC, pulling the tin along. Do that two or three times and you've got all the pins covered. And if you didn't put too much tin, you won't have much for bridges left over either. Or, you can do what my friend does and completely covers everything with ton, then wicks it all away. Bit messier but that works too.

Nowadays I reflow almost 100% of my projects. Proper placing is the only thing that matters at that point. No more caffeine ... causes the hand and fingers to tremble too much. I wonder if people have built or converted cheap CNCs into pick and place machines. Hmmm ...

However, it is a solution aimed at an entirely different set of problems

That may be a reason, people who need the power are currently using different platforms like mBed, Maple et al. They might use a Due when it's available.

Quote

I will be watching to see the types of projects that people create with them, and that may increase my level of interest.

If you build it they will come. Maybe. We get posts here along the lines of "How do I do speech recognition while simultaneously controlling 10000 LEDs" or "How do I do pattern recognition from a digital camera".

Currently we say forget it, maybe when a few projects come on line that do these things people will see the possibilities.

OTOH maybe Arduino is doomed to a life of controlling wearable LEDs

Maybe the Due will need a "killer app" to show people what can be done, thinking about that now though I can't think of a good example. Some robotic control or similar?.

Quote

I wonder if there are enough people that actually need a better processor.

Maybe not, does anyone know how many mega2560 boards are sold, those applications would be obvious candidates for a SAM. People are always running out of RAM though so even if you don't need the grunt the extra memory would be nice.

Quote

The last thread you made may have had more interest in the Micro-controller section, at least for the Leonardo it has worked out to be 8 pages so far.

Yeah, I may repeat it there. I use the "unread posts" link and therefore see every section, but others may not.

As for the soldering, we are just going to have to get used to that, I've done some and it's not that hard, as mentioned others have done plenty. The alternative is to do a breakout board, with 144 pins though it will be a challenge to make it breadboad friendly.

If you build it they will come. Maybe. We get posts here along the lines of "How do I do speech recognition while simultaneously controlling 10000 LEDs" or "How do I do pattern recognition from a digital camera".

That's already been asked, or some form of it, just recently too. Someone wants to use a camera to detect a line ... basically a line following robot, but they were trying to do it by analyzing the video.

The alternative is to do a breakout board, with 144 pins though it will be a challenge to make it breadboad friendly.

You don't. Simply break out the pins and let people solder their wires to that. I'm thinking a large square with the pins staggered and broken out on all four sides of the IC. I mean, it's not impossible to make it breadboard friendly ... I'd break out 72 pins per side, single row, and call it a day. But changes are that would also take up the whole breadboard and not leaving a whole lot of room for anything else.

I wonder if there are enough people that actually need a better processor.

Well there are less people needing it than need the lower power ones.

Quote

how many mega2560 boards are sold, those applications would be obvious candidates for a SAM.

I think you find that a lot of people get the Mega for more I/O and a just in case mentality than anything else. Personally most of my projects involve some sort of port expander to give them more I/O, it is just I think it is simple to add what ever port expander I need than to get the bigger surface mount processor.

Quote

looks like I missed out on the Discovery board

Well this side of the Atlantic you had to buy them anyway. I just got mine, it was only £10.

Quote

Maybe the Due will need a "killer app" to show people what can be done

That will certainly get the ball rolling, I want to make a wave additive synthesiser to start with. However, the Due will have to be launched first. It will also have stiff competition from the Raspberry Pi http://www.raspberrypi.org/

I have no idea what that is but yes it needs some neat projects (audio or visual or even audio-visual I would think) to show what it can do.

Quote

I am trying to figure out what precisely to do with it that I could not do on a 1284-based Arduino OR a Linux capable board like Beagle bone.

I have a feeling that 90% of apps can be done with less and the 10% that need more have other options. Still there are other options to the standard Arduino and it does well. Just being an official Arduino port will count for a lot.

I've always thought the mega1284 was about perfect, I think I'll be holding off on my SAM design for the time being and might go back and revisit something similar I did a while back with the 1284.